Florence Nightingale wrote of specific issues of conduct and moral behavior. The Nightingale pledge that was composed in 1893 by nursing instructor Lystra Gretter includes the vow "to abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous and will not take or knowingly administer any harmful drug." Over the last 100 years, nursing has evolved into a very complex professional field. Nurses are now faced with life and death decisions, sometimes on an hourly basis. Medical care has advanced to the point that new technology with its potential benefit or harm to a patient changes constantly.
The financial cost of a domestic adoption starts even before one is chosen to be the adoptive parents. In a domestic adoption, there are pre-adoption expenses due to an agency, a lawyer or the person that is searching for a child to adopt. A home study is required by most states in order to be considered eligible to adopt. Foreign adoptions also have similar pre adoption expenses before the adoption process truly begins. In a typical agency adoption, the fee includes the home study, placement fees, the matching of a child to a family and some post adoption counseling may be involved.
Provide a national training and education plan There are many strong nurses involved in the IAFN who unify their voices to lobby for political change and governmental funding changes. With input, the presidents DNA initiative was implemented. The IAFN is working hard to have the changes applied and educate the community at large. As an advocate for policy change, personally and through the IAFN I have been involved in many grassroots lobbying efforts. Many letters have been written as well as personal visits to policy making officials.
A clear solution to this dilemma would be if the patient had a DNR (do not resuscitate) advance directive. Unfortunately the patient does not have one and the family refuses to assign him one. According to the American Nursing Association’s code of ethics “The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, group, or community; as well as, The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient”(as cited by Potter & Perry, 2013, Pg. 288). In this scenario the family is now the voice of the patient and it is the nurse’s responsibility to carry out their wishes.
Ethics and Nursing: A Case Study of Mr. E Maria Merritt WGU Nursing Roles and Values NVT November 19, 2012 Ethics and Nursing: A Case Study of Mr. E Standards of nursing practice guide what we do in our role as registered nurses each and every day we enter the workplace. While there are many laws and rules which govern general nursing practice, the New Mexico Nurse Practice Act provides structure to our practice by requiring a specific set of standards to follow. As I review the case study and put myself in the position of the staff nurse in this situation my thoughts are consistent with this scope of practice standard: "The nurse acts to safeguard the patient/client when his care and safety are affected by incompetent, unethical, or illegal conduct of any person by reporting the conduct to the appropriate authorities." (New Mexico Nurse Practice Act, 2012). In this instance the staff nurse failed to advocate for Mr. E by not informing nor asking his brother, Mr. Y, if he was aware his brother had an advanced directive.
“Born in a Bathtub” Published in Child and Family Digest, May 1954 In the May 1954 issue of, Child and Family Digest, a woman wrote about her desire and experience in delivering her baby at home. Medical staff urged her to go to the hospital because her doctor was not willing to assist with a home delivery. However, the decision was taken out of her hands when she woke in the middle of the night in what turned out to be advanced labor. She felt a need to use the restroom. When she did so, her water broke.
The organizational policies are the guidelines associated with national legislation implemented by local authorities or independent organizations and these will also be applied to the case study. This essay is about a 76 year old lady within a respite setting. From now on she will be referred to as Martha to protect her identity as per Data Protection Act (1998). Martha suffers from some short term memory loss and has spent 5 weeks in hospital following a fall, before being transferred to respite. She has made good progress and has been assessed as being independent in all activities of daily living.
This stigma, I can relate to as I previously was an international flight attendant, with a similar tainted image. My view transposed when my sister in law became a RN. Current Perception Today’s nurses follow more of a leadership role like Florence Nightingale. Florence Nightingale was a leader that worked in deplorable conditions. She revolutionized the role of nursing by creating a system for transcribing doctors’ orders and patient’s records.
When providing patient care in the healthcare field, as professionals, nurses need to be prepared for the challenges that might arise on the hospital setting. Being prepared can make challenges or situations in the nursing field less difficult or provide less resistance for decisions to make in delivering the best quality of care. Whether it is caring for a minor in labor or a same sex couple in the hospital being evaluated, special protocols must be implemented to provide the highest quality of care. As in the case of Rachel who is a minor unwed and in the early stages of labor admitted to the hospital, accompanied by her parents who has not been given meds or been seeing by the physician on duty who happens to be attending another emergency. Where clearly has brought a difficult situation to the healthcare team of the hospital raising ethical and legal issues in all aspects due to the fact that the parents of the pregnant teen have refused any assistance and the nurse assigned has complied silently.
Ethical Issues in Nursing This book examines major ethical issues in nursing practice. It eschews the abstract approaches of bioethics and medical ethics, and takes as its point of departure the difficulties nurses experience practising within the confines of a biomedical model and a hierarchical health care system. It breaks out of the rigid categories of mainstream health care ethics (autonomy, beneficence, quality of life, utilitarianism…) and provides case studies, experiences and challenging lines of thought for the new professional nurse. The contributors examine the role of the nurse in relation to themes such as informed consent, privacy and dignity, and confidentiality. Nursing accountability is also considered in relation to the contemporary Western health care system as a whole.